MOM’S MEMOIRS – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
(Continued)
Mom’s Autobiography – Chapter 27 – In Book, Page 63
Mom’s Illness And Death, Matthew Gutzmer’s Death, Steph Becomes A Beautician, Bought Into Pioneer Park, Kellberg Weddings, Pa’s Death, The Marquardts, Tim Graduates From The Sem, Assigned To Waupun, Wisconsin, Sue Mueller’s Miscarriage, Julia Born, Tim’s Emergency Appendectomy
She lived with us the last three months of her life. At Christmas time we had the Christmas tree up in the living room, Mom was lying on a bed near the tree, and Lord And Savior Christmas carolers came and sang beautifully for her.. Since she could not go up and down steps to either bathroom in the four-level parsonage any longer, we had a portable “potty” next to her. After Christmas she got sicker, so we had a hospital bed in our family room, and wonderful Mrs. Anna Hauge, who was a nurse, made all the arrangements for the bed and a visiting nurse who came to the parsonage once a week to check on Mom. She was very sick, but when she heard that Sue and Jim were coming, she got up, and dressed herself so she would be ready for them. She dearly loved all of us.
Then Mom went into a semi-coma. Dick and I took turns at night sleeping on a cot next to her. We prayed and sang hymns to her. One time she said, “Irene sings better than you, Sonny”. But usually she did not say anything. One night at midnight we saw that she was very lucid, so Dick also gave her communion, and she recited the words with him. What a blessing that was! But then she lapsed into a deep coma, and the visiting nurse came twice a week.
Mom went to her eternal home with Jesus on January 7, l981. She was 78 years old. Her funeral was at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Jefferson, Wisconsin (where her husband had been pastor for over twenty years, and she was buried east of Jefferson in the Christberg Cemetery (St. John’s first church) next to her husband. Betty Wendland, wife of Pastor/Missionary Ernst Wendland, and John, one of the Wendlands’ sons, who was killed in a car accident while attending school in the United States, are also buried at Christberg Cemetery. The Wendlands were in Africa as missionaries when we were missionaries there. When Dick and I go to visit Mom and Dad Mueller’s graves, we also go to visit Betty and John’s graves. Betty’s parents, the Jungkuntzes, are also buried there.
One of our faithful families of Lord And Savior was Mr. Wallace and Judy Gutzmer, Wally, Mark, Steve, Matthew, and Jamie. They went on a vacation the summer of 1980. When they came back, Matthew started running into walls and other things. They took him to the doctor and found out that he had an inoperable tumor at the base of the back of his head. Matthew was my Sunday School student, and was only 6-1/2 years old, the same age as my brother, Henry, when he went to be with Jesus. The Gutzmer family tried to save Matthew, but all they could do is comfort him and pray. We remember when we went to their home. Matthew and Mr. Gutzmer were lying on a bed in the living room, and Mr. Gutzmer’s eyes were red and he was crying. Matthew went to be with Jesus on January 13th, only six days after Mom Mueller had passed away. The Gutzmers said that Mom’s death prepared them for little Matt’s death.
When one of the children, Mark, and I were looking at Matthew in his coffin, Mark said, “Now he’s an angel”, and I said, “no, Mark, he’s not an angel, but he is singing with the angels”. After the service at Lord and Savior on January 17th, Mr. and Mrs. Gutzmer came down the aisle singing, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” because they knew that their Matthew was now living happily with Jesus in heaven. There were no tears now.
Stephanie graduated from Northwestern Prep in 1981. Another blessing for our family. When she came home, she said, “what should I do now?” Everyone said, “Steph, you’ve been cutting students’ hair all those years at Northwestern – why don’t you become a beautician?” So that’s what she did! She graduated from the Elgin School of Beauty Culture in 1982, and worked as a cosmetologist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while Jeff would be attending the Seminary. She gave Steve a permanent, and we have some very “cute” pictures of him. Since Stephanie and Steve are four years apart in age, it meant that when the school year started again, Steve would be attending Northwestern Prep. Steve was confirmed with another boy in the new church building of Lord And Savior in 1981.
One day in 1982 we received a card in the mail from Pioneer Park, Lake Delton, Wisconsin, inviting us to go on a tour of the park, with a salesman, who would show us lots for sale in the park. They had just opened up a new part of the park. We thought, “why not, we won’t buy any”. They offered the gift of a free weekend of camping. As it happened, we found out that Pioneer Park is just next to Mirror Lake State Park, where we had camped and had fun with our families swimming, hiking, etc.
Well, we went on the tour and didn’t pay much attention until we came to a large flat lot with beautiful oak trees on it – and near one of the two swimming pools! I guess my eyes must have opened wide because my loving husband took the salesman, Mr. Frazier, aside, came back and said, “I bought it for you!” Can you imagine my amazement, and joy? We decided then to sell our motor home and buy a Honey Park Model trailer to put on out lot. That was in August, 1982. At that time the trailer was top of the line. We loved it, and so did our family. When any of us were on vacation or holidays, we headed for Pioneer Park. Many of our grandchildren learned to swim and dive (thanks to me, their Grandma) there.
Mark Kellberg (Helen – Dick’s sister – and Carl’s son) and Kathryn Thompson were married April 16, 1983, in Bellevue, Washington. Christine, Helen and Carl’s daughter, married Brian Charlton June 27, 1982, in Renton, Washington. Carla, Helen and Carl’s daughter, and Charles (Pete) Peterson were married August 12, 1989, in Renton, Washington. And John, the youngest, later married Wendy O’Neall April 24, 1993, in Bellevue, Washington. All of them had beautiful weddings and receptions. We had wonderful times with Helen, Carl, and all in their family whenever we visited them. They took us on sightseeing tours to see the wondrous sights of the state of Washington. After the eruption, we saw Mount St. Helens, from a distance, and even bought a plate made from the ashes from the eruption.
My father, “Pa” (Henry Kuckkan – he loved to fish and taught all of his daughters how) went to his eternal home July 3, 1983, from prostate cancer. He and Mom Mueller were sick at the same time with cancer. We were at Ma and Pa’s home that day, and after he passed away, there was a terrific storm. My sister, ”Lottie” (Doloris), looked out the window and said, “Pa, you don’t have to be that mad at us”. All of our six children came to his funeral at St. Mark’s. He was 78 years old, the same age as Mom Mueller.
Mr. August Marquardt, who with his wife had donated the land for Lord And Savior, went to live in his eternal home in heaven with Jesus April 10, 1984. He was 87 years old. Mr. Marquardt had broken his hip when he went to a lumber yard in Woodstock where he had been going for years. They had moved the steps going outside, and he fell down. It was very sad for him, especially because he had been so active his whole life. That man planted a huge garden for us on a corner of the lot which he and his wife had donated, providing us with all, and more, than the vegetables we needed to fill our freezer, fixed an old trailer up for us which someone had given to us, and did so much more. He did so much even in his “old age” until the accident. His funeral was held at Lord And Savior on April 13th, with my husband officiating. Dear Mrs. Louise Marquardt, who made the Chrismons for the Christmas trees, who with her husband provided the Christmas carolers with refreshments, made banners for the church, even fixed my old doll’s head and sewed a beautiful dress for her, had our Debbie do housework for them when she and Glen moved from California, and did so many other things, went to heaven June 1, 1988, at the age of 84. We had left Crystal Lake in 1986, so Pastor David Carlovsky officiated at her funeral.
Tim graduated from the Lutheran Seminary May 25, 1984. He had vicared at Mount Lebanon Lutheran Church (where Dick’s classmate, Marvin Otterstatter, was pastor) in Milwaukee, and received the Call to Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Waupun, Wisconsin. Tim is a dedicated, sincere, pastor and preacher, a “chip off the old blocks”, his grandfather and his father. How happy and proud we are of him! And we know that his grandfather Mueller would be very proud of him, too, following in his footsteps. Tim was ordained and installed July 8, 1984. They had an addition to their family, Christopher, born September 15, 1983, so now they moved with their three children, Jenny, Timmy, and Chris, to Waupun, Wisconsin, not far from Watertown.
On November 9, 1985, Sue and Tim attended a wedding in Waupun. At the reception turkey was served. Sue was pregnant at the time. They ate the turkey and got deathly sick, Sue losing their baby. The bride’s mother called them and asked if they were sick, and they said yes. She said that there were two lines of people, and the one line of people had eaten the bad turkey. We were all very sad, but we know that their little one is in the arms of Jesus.
Julia, born October 30, 1986, and Matthew, born December 1, 1988, were born while they lived in Waupun. The children of grade school age attended St. John’s Lutheran School (we remember those wonderful Grandparents’ Days at the school to which the children invited us) in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, commuting by bus. When they were of high school age, they attended Winnebago Lutheran High School in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Jenny was a cheerleader while she attended there (she gave us a big pin with a beautiful picture of herself in her cheerleader outfit on it), and Timmy and Chris played basketball. While Tim was pastor in Waupun, the congregation built a beautiful addition to the church. The stainless glass window above the altar is awesome. What a wonderful blessing!
In April of 1989 Sue called us in Waunakee and told us that our Tim had to have an emergency appendectomy. They did an exploratory first at the hospital in Waupun, something which we could not understand. We went to the hospital, and when we saw Tim, he looked very sick, and when I felt his forehead, it was hot – too hot! I told the nurses, and when they came, they too knew he had a very high fever, and packed him in ice. Thank God we came when we did.